It’s a rare thing for a candy dispenser to become more famous than the candy it’s dispensing, but that’s certainly the case for PEZ. Invented in Vienna, Austria in 1927 by Eduard Haas III, its name is derived from the German word for peppermint: PfeffErmintZ. The small, brick like candies are sold in the billions each year but it’s the plastic, collectible dispensers that have made the brand famous. Often depicting cartoon versions of characters from film and television, they have also infiltrated pop culture, appearing in shows such as Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Japanese manga Bleach and having a whole Seinfeld episode named The Pez Dispenser in their honour.
Curator Notes
Edie Kurzer is a celebrated Australian designer. Twice she has won the AACTA Award, the most prestigious prize for costume design in Australia, for her work on the iconic 6 part TV series Picnic at Hanging Rock (Foxtel /FremantleMedia) and the highly lauded ABC mini-series Molly. With Picnic she also won the coveted Australian Production Design Guild’s prize and in 2019 won it once more for the feature film Judy & Punch.
Over the past twenty-five years in Australia Edie has made crucial contributions to major productions such as: the Gillian Armstrong-directed documentary feature film Women He’s Undressed (about Orry Kelly); the influential TV mini-series Secret River and Violent Earth; and the feature films South Solitary (starring Miranda Otto), Look Both Ways, Matching Jack, and Thank God He Met Lizzie (starring Cate Blanchett, Richard Roxburgh and Frances O’Connor). She also designed costumes for Josh Thomas on his ground-breaking television series Please Like Me (season 4).
Internationally, Edie has worked with director Bill Bennett on both In a Savage land and Tempted (starring Burt Reynolds and Saffron Burrows) and with the renowned British film and theatre director Mike Leigh on the Royal Stratford Theatre’s production of A Greek Tragedy (London/Edinburgh/Sydney).
Edie has also collaborated in vital cultural and educational projects in Indigenous communities in major cities and in remote regions of Australia.
Related works
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Collection
Not in ACMI's collection
On display until
16 February 2031
ACMI: Gallery 1
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
Curatorial section
The Story of the Moving Image → Foyer → Entry → FSF-02. Fed Sq Foyer Cabinets → FSF Cabinet 9
Object Types
3D Object
Diorama